


1. Chasing Pirates

by seekingferret



Series: The Pirate Rabbi [1]
Category: 16th & 17th Century CE RPF, Post-Biblical Jewish RPF
Genre: Biblical References, Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Gen, Jewish Character, Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-11
Updated: 2010-02-11
Packaged: 2017-10-07 04:32:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekingferret/pseuds/seekingferret
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Pirate Rabbi celebrates Purim in his own special way, Spring 1614.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chasing Pirates

**Author's Note:**

  * For [baranduin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/baranduin/gifts).



"Chaverim, una palabra, min fadlak." The ship rocks gently in the waves at this night anchorage in the North Sea. The full moon shines down brightly on frigid water, blessing their endeavors. The white-bearded man in the turban continues in his Arabic-accented Spanish.

"I know we are all hungry, and we are anxious to move on to the meal, but the Chachamim, the brilliant sages in whose footsteps we follow, decreed in their wisdom that before we eat, we must retell the story." Ironic chattering greets this pronouncement.

"And so, gentlemen, I present to you... King Achashverosh, patsy to the Duke of Lerma... may his confusion be prolonged!" Mild cheers and jeers erupt.

"You mock? Ah, but save the mocking for our next guest, Achashverosh's evil vizier Haman, with his Autos da Fe and his holy, cleansing fires. He is the one we are commanded to blot out." The crew happily obliges, booing and stomping and clashing swords in a merry cacophony.

"Well done, men. And next we have our heroine, the delightful Queen, my dear wife back in Amsterdam. I do it all for her." Applause breaks out, interrupted with an occasional cry of "Malca!" or "Reina!"

A hefty, middled aged man who has been seated next to the speaker stands up now and claps his arm around the man's shoulders. "And last but not least, we have Mordechai, the Ish Yehudi, our own Chacham, Rabbi Palache. Without him we would be ruined." The white-haired man acknowledges this curtly, but does not allow much applause.

"Well, then, we have met our cast. Let us tell their story now." The Rabbi unfurls a scroll of parchment and begins to chant. "Vayehi bimei Achashverosh, hu Achashverosh..." Forty minutes later, he is finished reading.

"Mis Amigos... It is time to break our fast, at last. But before we eat, one last thing. The Chachamim, in their wisdom, commanded us to retell that story every year. Not because it is a good story, though it is. But because just like Passover, we relive the story in every generation. Tomorrow, we will go out there, and we will tell the Spanish mamzrim the story. Now where's the wine got to?" A goblet finds its way into his hand and the Pirate Rabbi says the blessing that every generation of Jew has said.

"Baruch atah adonai, elohenu melech ha'olam, borei p'ri hagafen!"

His crew choruses, "Amen!"  
  
**Ok, it's a stupid picture, but seriously, it makes me happy that it exists.**

**Author's Note:**

> Title is taken from the Norah Jones song.
> 
> The cast of Rabbi Palache's Purim Spiel:
> 
> King Philip III of Spain (Philip II of Portugal), was the King of Spain at the time of this raid. He was generally considered a weak King, conducting most of his governance through the person of his chief advisor, the Duke of Lerma.
> 
> Bernardo de Sandoval y Rojas was the latest in a string of Grand Inquisitors who tortured and killed Spanish "New Christians" after forcing them to confess to being secret Judaizers.
> 
> Samuel Palache, born in Morocco in the mid-16th Century, the son of a prominent Rabbi, became an adventurer by his late teenagerdom, joining Barbary crews that struck out against the Spanish. He was a spy, a diplomat, a merchant, a privateer, a soldier, and then, when the Protestant government of Holland relaxed its rules about minority religions, the founder and spiritual leader of the Jewish community of Amsterdam. Even to the age of 70 he continued to lead nautical raids against the Spanish on behalf of the Dutch and the Moroccans.
> 
> His wife was named Malca, which I found remarkably fortuitous for this story. Now that I've established the Pirate Rabbi fandom, people should write fic for her. I'd be fascinated to see a conversation between Malca Palache and [Anna Bijns](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Bijns), just to give one example.
> 
>  
> 
> "Chaverim, una palabra, min fadlak" means "Friends, a word, if you please," in a bastardly mixture of Hebrew, Spanish, and Arabic.
> 
> "Malca", a Hebrew name, and her Spanish nickname "Reina", both mean Queen.
> 
> "Ish Yehudi", which means "Jewish Man" in Hebrew, is the term used to introduce Mordechai in the Book of Esther.
> 
> "Vayehi bimei Achashverosh, hu Achashverosh" is the opening line of the Book of Esther- "And it happened in the days of Achashverosh, the very Achashverosh who..."
> 
> Mis amigos is Spanish for "My friends"- it's equivalent to the Hebrew "Chaverim".
> 
> "Mamzrim" is Hebrew for "bastards".
> 
> "Baruch atah adonai, elohenu melech ha'olam, borei p'ri hagafen!" is the Jewish blessing recited over wine- "Blessed are you, Lord, Our God and King of the Universe, who created fruit of the vine."


End file.
